Edith Finch and the Power of Family Stories

[@PixelaDay]

If you like what I do please consider throwing me a bit of money on Patreon, check out the tiers and benefits here: www.patreon.com/pixeladay

[@Cannotbetamed1]

Fantastic video! It’s strange, I thought often during this game about stories and unreliable narrators, but for some reason never gave a lot of thought to Edith’s agency in telling or embellishing these stories or even the house itself. I was always thinking about her grandmother and how she portrayed the lives and deaths of her family.

[@alemka121]

Great analysis, not only of the game but the condition we all suffer from: family entanglements! Clever, poetic, enlightening and life affirming. Well done!

[@calibratedape7044]

Great essay, really interesting points. After watching "The villian of Edith Finch" by Joseph Anderson there is one way to see the Finch family story for me. Even sadder reflection on what we can discover when investigating real story.

[@ttaaddoo111]

In addition to the Family Systems Theory that you put forward, I think that Ernesto Spinelli proposes a pretty interesting theory of why we create stories at all. His take is that we live in a basically in its entirety unknowable and unpredictable world, which in itself is unbearable. Therefore we need something to hold on to in order for our lives to be liveable, and thus we create structure through our minds and relations. He makes a distinction between the world as experienced in the moment, worlding, and through reflection, worldview. His point is that our actually lived lives are multitudinous in their meaning and possibilities, and in order to make anything of anything, we put our experiences in more or less neat boxes os essences or "is"-statements. Thus, anything that goes on primarily in our minds, be that thinking, remembering or otherwise, is a simplification of our actual lived experiences. A next step of this removal from actually lived experiences is when worldviews become so fixed that they sediment and become "solid". When this occurs, our ideas of what is and isn't and goes on become primary to our experiences, and thus our sedimented worldviews can allow us to dissociate from actual experiences and/or define these. We gain a great deal of confidence and security, but we become entirely inflexible and blind to nuances. Now, the degree to which one needs to put experiences into neat boxes varies, but Spinelli's stance is that we all need it to some extent to lead a life as beings conscious of their own conscience. If these thoughts interest anyone, I would point you towards his book Practising Existential Therapy wherein he uses half of the book to lay out the theory and then uses the remaining half to translate these rather basic and minimalistic principles to therapeutic practice.

[@nathannlatimore7863]

This is an incredible analysis. I loved all the little graphic effects like "A World of Their Own Making" book being visible through the peephole, I loved the pacing and segmentation of the themes, and I loved the genuine sincerity that was brought to the writing. I played What Remains of Edith Finch myself a few years ago and it always stuck in my mind as an incredibly moving experience. Thank you for putting into words what's special about this game and all the little stories it tells.

[@PixelaDay]

That's lovely to hear :) Thanks for your comment!

[@timlwetzel]

As someone coming from a home of abuse, there's a lot about this video that is hard to watch. But that you could end it on a happy, hopeful note...really helps.

[@tylerclem]

Played Edith Finch a few years ago. Revisiting the story and its meaning was a joy. I admire all the effort that goes into the clever transitions, weaving the right video clips in with the narration. Good stuff!

[@PixelaDay]

Thank you for the lovely comment!

[@losalfajoresok]

amazing video, you made me think again how we shape the lives of future people we won't meet, even if our stories aren't as tragic as the Finch family. You deserve a million views!

[@PixelaDay]

Thank you! That's so lovely to hear :)

[@losalfajoresok]

@@PixelaDay cheers from Argentina!

[@nopnapnarp8047]

Great video Pixel. Putting that psych degree to good use. Love it!

[@Skyehoppers]

Really cool video :) I definitely need to play this game now. It's really interesting that a story featuring so many characters who die so young can have a hopeful note to it as well

[@VZed]

Great video. This is a game that is still taking shape in my mind almost a year after first playing it and it's so cool to see how it hits other people along the way.

[@PixelaDay]

Thanks VZed! It still makes me cry as much as the first time I played it.

[@chefmacedo]

What an analysis, for this would be impossible to make an analysis so deep like this.

[@Crodocile]

Adam Millard brought me here! Great video my guy

[@GonziHere]

Fantastic video and a great analysis of the themes.

[@ForeverMasterless]

I played this game and then watched my girlfriend at the time play through the whole thing and I still didn't catch that we're reading Edith's diary to her unborn son and so her trip through the house is also exaggerated and the real house probably wasn't nearly as elaborate and weird.

[@subprogram32]

Except we do see a shot of the house 'in real life' at the end, and it's as exactly as weird looking as it was within the story - so it's probably at *least* half as weird as the story told us it was. :P

[@optiquemusic6204]

This game has an exquisite story that I'm glad I played through, even if it gets depressing in places (Poor Gregory). That said, as much as Edith tries to maintain that the Finch Curse is not real, I'm convinced that it's the House itself that's Cursed. Every Finch that died did so in or around that place, so I say burn it down!

[@pimscrypt]

A truly excellent summary of why this game is so bloody good!

[@PixelaDay]

Thanks Pim

[@eveningdreamermusic]

thanks for this. the game is amazing, and you made me see some things and threads I hadn't thought of before.

[@PixelaDay]

Glad to hear it!

[@gearsofwar573]

Just found your channel Holy Crap it's Amazing I love how you add story's and perspective to your game play.

[@PixelaDay]

Thanks, glad you're enjoying the channel!

[@EbonPhantasma]

Phenomenal video Kat!

[@PixelaDay]

D’aw thanks Eb ❤️

[@kanalkucker14]

Nice video! Gonna plan play Edith Finch now 😁

[@PixelaDay]

Enjoy!

[@vagabundorkchaosmagick-use2898]

A little story My father, my mother and one of my brothers (I have two, younger) sometimes mention I used to be obsessed with Marilyn Manson back in 1997, but that's not true, I never liked Manson. In 1996, a friend made me a tape with Bauhaus, Christian Death, Nosferatu, Sisters of Mercy and The Wake; before that, I was into Nirvana, Santa Sabina, Sepultura and Cocteau Twins; this tape changed my life forever, I got into gothic rock and deathrock. When Manson became big in 1997, a few months after releasing Antichrist Superstar, I was already involved in the Mexican gothic scene, and Manson was nothing but a poseur to me, a Nine Inch Nails/Christian Death ripoff, with terrible vocals. I know I never liked MM. I know that I know because I used to write stories about deathrock boys and black metal girls falling in love, and their hate for MM as a common ground. But my family remember that, perhaps because they never really cared about the music I liked (my father is into Doors, Beatles and Mexican popular music; my brother doesn't really care about music, my mother is into Spanish ballads). For them, Christian Death, gothic rock, black metal and Manson are all the same. Anyway, great video. For some reason, I skipped it when you posted it.

[@PixelaDay]

I'm so glad you connected with the video! Your story just goes to show how broad categories and labels stick so much more than specifics, especially as time goes on. I desperately want to read those stories you wrote btw, they sound like the bomb

[@vagabundorkchaosmagick-use2898]

@@PixelaDay Only a couple of them survive, but they're not good. Let me show you a fragment, but be warned: it's cringe as hell (not to mention it was originally written in Spanish and I'm not a translator): Whens she arrived, the first thing she did was lock herself in her room and put on "Dream Home Heartache" by Rozz Williams & Gitane DeMone, programmed the song "Flowers", so that it would repeat over and over again. She frantically searched through the drawers and boxes that filled her bedroom for something. There it was: a grey silk scarf, wrapped around something dark, almost black, made of metal. From the same place she pulled out a small wooden box, tossed it onto the bed, and a faint tinkling sound was heard. From another drawer she took out gloves of silk, satin and velvet, in black, blue and purple. As she put them on she lay down on the floor, looking at the walls, full of horror movie posters, there was one for "The Hunger", next to one for "Cronos", another for "Halloween" and one more for "Black Sunday". She fixed her gaze on a pair of masks on the wall in front of her, they were the masks representing Drama and Comedy. Drama and Comedy. Was that all her life had been, a black comedy? It had all been full of pain. "Pain is a poem." It was funny, in that terrible moment her romantic and poetic streak resurfaced (she was a gothic girl, after all), while from the speakers a sweet and sorrowful voice escaped: "I pray that all the poppies they... they will just fade away, but fields of poppies they remain. That's how they found me last time, dead".

[@disposable157]

Thanks for another great video Kat! Your read of the game is more optimistic than mine but I appreciate the contrasting view

[@PixelaDay]

Thanks! I’d love to hear your contrasting view as well!

[@miguerfaustin]

I follow more than a hundred KZbin channels and yours is my favourite. I love your profound analysis of video games I usually like (actually, I wish your videos would be longer). So when the heck are you planning on making a new one??

[@PixelaDay]

This is such high praise, thank you! I'm making a new one as we speak :) You'll be happy to hear your dream has come true - it's a long one! Probably a good hour and a half. I'm covering every game by Ninja Theory in depth. It's been a heck of a lot of work, but I hope it'll be worth it in the end...

[@miguerfaustin]

@@PixelaDay This is actually a dream come true!! 😍 It must be pretty cool to have someone you don't know in Spain (i.e., me) suddenly thinking about how damn good and interesting your videos are. Keep on keeping on! You rock!

[@PixelaDay]

It’s the best and you are the best. Thank you!

[@subprogram32]

This was a great video! Though it has made me have a bit of an existential crisis, because I can't for the life of me think of many family stories in my own life that feel very defining like that. Or maybe it's just my autistic ass not being very in tune with stuff like family roles and the like. Awesome work in any case! ^w^

[@PixelaDay]

Maybe it's time for some investigating? 😋 Glad you liked the vid!

[@subprogram32]

@@PixelaDay Possibly yes!

[@1-UP-Rory]

Fantastic video as always! (I didn't realise I wasn't subscribed on this account until now, whoops)

[@PixelaDay]

Thanks! For all your support generally 😊

[@breakthelegacy]

Are you a curator on steam by any chance, I want to play the games you appreciate.

[@PixelaDay]

It's something I've thought would be cool to do, but I haven't made the time for it. I really should!

[@diogenes6002]